In the gaming industry, a vast majority of games involve multiple players in the same location. Often a representative of the casino or house is present with a number of players around a common table. There is regular interaction between the players and with the dealer or representative of the house.
A major and perhaps most popular form of gaming, however, remains the free standing gaming device such as a slot machine controlled manually by the player with payment or credits for amounts won less than a machine defined jackpot. Some players develop a possessive feeling with respect to a particular machine at a particular time and their only contact with other players is perhaps conversation with an adjacent player or with a cocktail waitress or change attendant. It is primarily a solo gaming activity.
The players are often reluctant to leave the machine for change or other reasons and in most cases, the house or casino has no knowledge of the players identity, time or amount of play or needs, desires, or location of the player.
One advance in providing information to the house or casino of the player's identity and amount and time and machine played is through the use of card clubs in which there is a card issued to a player, usually at no cost, and a card slot in the gaming device which the player inserts providing identity of the player and the machine and time and amount of play. The card club is usually used to provide bonuses and incentives to the regular and major players of the gaming devices. This has opened the door to the knowledge of which player plays which machines and how much play in return for certain house benefits. The system providing for such communication is available from International Gaming Technology, Inc. of Reno, Nev. as their slot club player tracking system or other similar systems such as produced by Casino Data Systems, Inc. of Las Vegas, Nev.
In progressive play gaming devices, there has been developed intergame data transfer to the extent that multiple machine play can result in progressive jackpots and provide an incentive for players to participate in the progressive jackpot. Examples of such systems are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
______________________________________ 5,249,800 Hilgendorf et al October 5, 1993 5,280,909 D.A. Tracy January 25, 1994 ______________________________________
One attempt to encourage a player to remain at a machine by providing entertainment TV while playing is disclosed in the following U.S. Patent:
______________________________________ 5,259,613 A.A. Marnell, II November 3, 1993 ______________________________________
Other patents providing a degree of data transfer between gaming devices and a central location are shown in the following patents:
______________________________________ 5,429,361 Raven et al July 4, 1995 5,470,079 LeStrange et al November 28, 1995 ______________________________________
Still, the gaming device player constitutes a solo customer having very little interaction with his host.